Members in good standing? The relationship between pornography reboot communities and the manosphere.

Historically, feminist discourses around pornography have focused on its uncritical replication of misogynistic tropes/attitudes. Ironically, discourse analysis suggests that these values are also rife in the male-dominated anti-pornography communities that academics are increasingly classifying as a constituent part of the manosphere. In these groups, members chart their progress in abstaining from the supposedly addictive cycle of viewing/masturbating to pornography to "reboot" their brains and take back control of their lives. At the time of writing, the largest outlet, r/NoFap, boasts 1.2 million members, though there are several notable competitors. While the challenge may sound like yet another internet curiosity, research shows that members and content creators share fundamental manosphere values. Most obviously, like with other groups in the ecosystem, reboot communities are homosocial, normalising a boys club mentality that stems from allegedly fundamental biological/libidinal differences between men and women. They also construct their identities around an inflexible sexual market that positions men as entrepreneurs competing for a limited resource: women's sexual interest. In contrast to incels, who see themselves as unable to compete, rebooters position members as prospective marketplace winners who can reconnect with an innate male power through discipline and self-mastery. I review literature showing how reboot discourses support popular manosphere tenets, including i) The battle for masculinity: the conspiratorial view that pornography is a feminist tool designed to subvert hegemonic masculinity and weaken men; ii) A natural hierarchy of men: the operationalization of competitive masculinity to rank men from alpha to beta; iii) The instrumentalization of women: the gamification of sexual encounters into rewards for worthy men rather than mutually enjoyable experiences. I finish with a discussion about motivation variance in reboot communities, focussing on competing narratives surrounding the impact of pornography on men that vary in their compatibility with the manosphere. Among other topics, I reflect on cross-cultural narratives surrounding the significance of abstinence and harmful beliefs surrounding erectile dysfunction

Hit or miss? Gender parity and the future of international humanitarian law (IHL).

International humanitarian law has long been heralded as a safeguard for civilians in armed conflict, yet its gendered assumptions and application remain deeply contested. While legal frameworks such as the Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocols, and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 recognise the need for gender-sensitive protections, they often reinforce a victim-centric narrative. This narrative tends to limit women's roles to passive recipients of aid, rather than recognising them as active participants in conflict resolution and post-war reconstruction. This paper critically examines whether International Humanitarian Law, as currently structured, meaningfully addresses the complex realities of women in war or continues to fall short in achieving substantive gender parity. Using contemporary case studies, including the legal discourse surrounding the war in Gaza, this paper interrogates how gender is framed in the adjudication of war crimes, forced displacement, and genocide. It examines how International Humanitarian Law mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, address gendered experiences of conflict. This includes recognising sexual violence as a weapon of war and the exclusion of women from peace negotiations. The paper further critiques the efficacy of international adjudication in holding perpetrators accountable for gender-based war crimes and ensuring gender-sensitive reparations. This paper engages with feminist legal theory and critical approaches to international law. It argues that achieving genuine gender parity in International Humanitarian Law requires a paradigm shift. The focus should move from protectionist policies to frameworks that recognise and empower women as key stakeholders in conflict resolution. The research further contributes to broader debates on the future of international law. It proposes concrete reforms to strengthen gender-responsive legal mechanisms, ensuring that international humanitarian law evolves in alignment with principles of justice and impartiality

The optoelectric tunability effect of structurally patterned Fe 3 O 4 -Au assembly on Rhodamine 6G signals under Magneto-SERS measurements.

The magneto-plasmonic tunability property of magnetite-gold complex (Fe3O4-Au) colloids has garnered significant interest in bio-sensory applications like surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). In many studies, this tunability does not only depend on the external magnetic field contribution but also on the concentration ratio between Fe3O4 and Au. This would require multiple preparation of Fe3O4-Au colloidal badges. In this study, a magnetically stimulated Fe3O4-Au colloidal suspension in polyvinyl alcohol was spin-coated, forming a micro-patterned thin film on a silicon wafer substrate for assessing the SERS vibrational signal response of Rhodamine 6G (R6G). The varying concentration ratio between Fe3O4 and Au across three regions of interest within the single cast resulted in differing optoelectronic behaviour. Such was observed from diffuse reflectance UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy measurements, and its impact on different Raman signals of R6G. The introduction of an external magnetic field also led to approximately 133% higher peak intensity and improved spectral resolution of R6G under SERS measurements. This implies that the magnetic field polarization of Fe3O4 domain electrons influences plasmon electrons of Au nanoparticles leading to tuning of electronic-influenced vibrations of nearby analyte molecules. The variability of nanoparticle concentration ratios, configurations and the magneto-optoelectronic effect of this design template, provide flexibility and tunability in diagnosing biomolecule signals under SERS

Geomechanical failure of underground hydrogen storage (UHS) systems.

Green hydrogen gas produced from electrolysis of water using off-peak electricity from renewable sources is a clean energy source. Large-scale hydrogen production for energy generation will therefore help in achieving a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and global net-zero targets. Underground Hydrogen Storage (UHS) in salt caverns, saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas reservoirs has recently been recognised as a critical enabling technology for the large-scale storage of hydrogen gas. However, the UHS system environment may be adversely affected by complex processes driven by fluid flow, geochemical and geomechanical phenomena and governed by evolutionary changes in the subsurface stress regime and the interactions between the pore fluids, formation rock minerals and the injected/stored hydrogen gas. In addition, injection of hydrogen gas into subsurface formations can cause over-pressurisation and induced seismicity which may lead to formation failure. In this work, we develop a hydro-chemo-mechanical model to determine formation failure potential in underground hydrogen gas storage systems. This model captures the complex combined processes of fluid flow, geochemistry and geomechanics. Analysis of the results, based on changes in the volumes of the constituent minerals in the formation and the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, shows significant changes in the porosity and permeability and some impact on the geomechanical integrity of the storage formation

The utilization of Harmota olive oil to produce a sustainable biofuel.

Biodiesel may be considered a renewable and clean energy source that can contribute to reducing global greenhouse emissions and global warming phenomena. Biodiesel possesses several advantages over traditional petroleum diesel fuel, such as fewer greenhouse gas emissions and environmentally friendly fuel. The local olive oil factories dispose of the olive pomace, a non-edible by-product stream from the production process, with low production costs. Olive oil and pomace oil can be considered appropriate feedstock supporting biodiesel production worldwide. In this study, biodiesel was produced from a local olive oil sample sourced from Harmota olive oil in the Koya district of Iraqi Kurdistan. The produced biodiesel was also examined by several laboratory tests, such as density and cetane value, and the results were compared well with ASTM D6751 standards. The transesterification process utilized potassium hydroxide (KOH) as a catalyst, with varying methanol-to-oil molar ratios. The optimal conditions were identified as a 7:1 methanol-to-oil ratio and 0.5 grams of KOH, achieving a high biodiesel yield of approximately 91%. The resulting biodiesel demonstrated key fuel properties—density (879 kg/m³), viscosity (5.125 mm²/s), cetane number (64), and flash point (165 °C)—which are all within the ASTM D6751 biodiesel standard limits. Furthermore, this study shows the intriguing possibilities of using Harmota olive oil and its by-product, olive pomace oil, as a sustainable and effective feedstock. But it goes beyond that: guaranteeing high-quality biodiesel that is both affordable and environmentally benign depends on process optimization

Developments in public health paramedicine: exploring the professional practice of ambulance clinicians in palliative and end-of-life care in a remote and rural setting.

Professional practice in paramedicine is evolving rapidly, and with this evolution comes a growing ability - and responsibility - for paramedics to contribute to public health. Palliative and end-of-life care (PEOLC) public health is one such area where paramedicine has begun to contribute substantially and might still have significant untapped potential.This article explores developments in PEOLC paramedicine in the Scottish Highlands, an area classified as remote and rural, characterised by low population density, widely spaced communities and susceptibility to health inequalities created by access to healthcare, especially to specialist services. The role of paramedicine in PEOLC is examined in the context of public health priorities and policy, while considering the ability of paramedics to reduce health inequalities by widening access. An informal literature search was conducted to identify interventions through which paramedicine can make improvements to the experience of death and dying on a population level, and lead to substantial healthcare cost savings. These interventions range from reducing PEOLC hospital admissions through effective use of advance care planning, just-in-case medications and independent prescribing and local referral pathways, to effectively managing palliative emergencies amenable to treatment in hospital. Paramedicine could thus play a significant role in making policy ambitions in PEOLC a reality, and conversely, achieving PEOLC policy ambitions might be difficult without support from paramedicine. Paramedics play a growing role in community healthcare provision, especially in remote and rural settings, by providing a link between care provided in the community and specialist services. Better integration of paramedicine into primary and secondary healthcare systems could facilitate turning more PEOLC public health theory into practice. The information collated in this discussion reinforces the need to reflect this potential in research funding allocation, in social and government policy development and in clinical practice decisions made by each individual paramedic. [Abstract copyright: © 2025 The Author(s).

Gf-former: an accurate UAV-based remote sensing image network for high-precision automatic segmentation of ground fissures in mining regions.

Ground fissure information is critical for ensuring the safety of mining operations and preventing geological disasters. Challenges include obscuration by vegetation or shadows and varying fissure sizes. To address these, we introduce GF-Former, a specialized deep learning network for precise segmentation of ground fissures in remote sensing images. GF-Former utilizes a Mix Transformer encoder (Mit) to capture long-range dependencies, enhancing global perception. An Adaptive All Feature Fusion (AAFF) module dynamically adjusts feature weights according to interference conditions, effectively combining semantic information with edge details. A Dense Spatial Pyramid Pooling (DSPP) module extracts and aggregates multi-scale spatial information, improving detection of fissures of various sizes. A Focal Dice Loss is designed to enhance recognition capabilities in challenging conditions. To advance deep learning in ground fissure extraction, we created a dataset (GFD) including data from 27 mining faces in Liliu. Experiments on GFD demonstrate that GF-Former achieves an mIoU of 75.02%, mDice of 83.46%, and mPA of 86.15%, outperforming other models. Testing on public datasets DeepCrack and Crack500 confirms the adaptability and reliability of GF-Former in fissure detection. GF-Former provides a reliable solution for the extraction of ground fissures in mine remote sensing imagery

Assessing the research scene of green AI via bibliometric analysis.

The environmental impact of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to rise as more people embrace the technology. The optimization of AI models to be more efficient, use less energy, and emit low carbon is essential. This bibliometric study presents an overview of literature published on Green AI research worldwide, with a particular focus on Africa. This study investigates the current state of research on Green AI, to learn about the most influential contributors, institutions, countries, journal outlets, and partnerships in Green AI research, and to assess their influence. Bibliometric information for the analysis was retrieved from the Web of Science database. Over 385 articles from 2016 to 2024 were obtained and analyzed with the aid of Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer, a bibliometric visualization network tool. The results showed that there has been a growth in Green AI research since the year 2020. A closer look at the data showed that the USA outperformed all other countries in terms of research output and collaboration. The dominant themes recorded in the study include energy efficiency, carbon footprint reduction, and the development of sustainable AI models. The results are noteworthy for the academic community because they provide current and emerging trends in Green AI research

Integrated non-destructive testing for assessing manufacturing defects in melt-fusion bonded thermoplastic composite pipes.

The thermoplastic composite pipe (TCP) manufacturing process introduces defects that impact their performance, such as voids, misalignment, and delamination. Consequently, there is an increasing demand for effective non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques to assess the influence of these manufacturing defects on TCP. The objective is to identify and quantify internal defects at a microscale, thereby improving quality control. A combination of methods, including NDT, has been employed to achieve this goal. The density method is used to determine the void volume fraction. Microscopy and void analysis are performed on pristine samples using optical micrography and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while advanced techniques like X-ray computer tomography (XCT) and ultrasonic inspections are also applied. The interlayer between the reinforced and inner layers showed good consolidation, though a discontinuity was noted. Microscopy results confirmed solid wall construction, with SEM aligning with the XY axis slice, showing predominant fibre orientation around ±45° and ±90°, and deducing the placement orientation to be ±60°. Comparing immersion, 2D microscopy, and XCT methods provided a comparative approach, even though they could not yield precise void content values. The analysis revealed a void content range of 0-2.2%, with good agreement between microscopy and Archimedes' methods. Based on XCT and microscopy results, an increase in void diameter at constant volume increases elongation and reduces sphericity. Both methods also indicated that most voids constitute a minority of the total void fraction. To mitigate manufacturing defects, understanding the material's processing window is essential, which can be achieved through comprehensive material characterization of TCP materials

Food insecurity, diabetes self-management and support for self-management in high income countries: a qualitative systematic review and synthesis (2008 to 2024).

People living with diabetes and food insecurity in high-income countries have poorer health-related outcomes than those who are food secure. Diabetes is a significant global health challenge. At the same time, the prevalence of household food insecurity continues to increase. This qualitative systematic review and synthesis explored the lived experience of diabetes self-management and support for self-management for people living with diabetes and food insecurity in high-income countries. Keywords and search terms were developed using the PICo framework with searches conducted between January 2008 and August 2024. Titles and abstracts were screened against inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the methodological quality of included papers was assessed using the Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research and CERQual. Findings from 18 articles (detailing 17 studies) identified four interlinked themes: structural challenges, day-to-day challenges, ways of being for people living with food insecurity and diabetes, and self and support for self-management needs. Structural challenges (poverty, sociocultural and discrimination) were identified as the main determinants of the day-to-day challenges for people living with diabetes and food insecurity. Those challenges included the following: (i)limited access to suitable foods and food management resources; (ii) stress, (iii) poverty and diabetes stigma, (iv) limited informal support, (v) perceived lack of appropriate support from healthcare practitioners, and limited knowledge, confidence and understanding and access to information. The resulting ways of being for people affected were characterised by experiences of subsisting, avoiding, balancing and prioritising. Self and support for self-management needs were characterised by two themes improve[ing] clinical conversations and, support beyond health services. People living with diabetes and food insecurity are adopting methods of self-management, due to economic necessity, which may not be appropriate from a healthcare perspective, and which may be impacting their short and long-term health. There is an urgent need to address these issues in the post COVID-19 pandemic context for effective diabetes prevention and management